Depack Stakeholder Group Launched: Ben and Jerry’s Reluctant to Apply Precautionary Principle

The first stakeholder group meeting launched with discussions around composition, decision making, planning meeting schedules and core principles. The group agreed to make decisions by consent with majority rules when an objection can’t be resolved. Stakeholder group member Tom Gilbert (of Black Dirt Farm, also representing the Poultry Farmers for Compost Foraging as well as the Protect Our Soils Coalition), made a motion to add at least one scientific perspective to the group's slate of industry reps, without success. Noticeably, there was agreement to take testimony from a series of scientists across the board. In another motion, Tom Gilbert suggested agreeing to core values including the precautionary principle, an ethical/legal principle often used to guide states in protecting the natural bases of existence. Further, this principle establishes a responsibility to future generations - a pursuit which can entail measures for precaution and danger prevention. When applied, the precautionary principle often leads to conservative approaches to a risk, and its application calls for the development of solutions (e.g. to health problems).

We were disappointed to hear the Ben & Jerry’s representative caution against adopting the precautionary principle as a guiding value: “In environmental health, there’s so many things that can hurt us out there, the air we breathe, the water bottles from which we’re drinking. The precautionary principle can be applied very broadly. I'm hesitant to agree that because someone could get harmed later, we won’t do it. If it comes to environmental health, it could be almost anything.” This prompted initial support from Michael Casella who would like to get more information about what such an approach could mean on the ground. 

Watch Ben and Jerry’s statement and the full recording here.